An organic day

Living in Bishopstone its hard to be unaware of the organic trade with Helen Browning Organics being based in the village and her farm Eastbrook occupying much of the surrounding land. Friends work on the farm and for the Soil Association providing auditing services. At times the whole world around me seems to be orientated around huge amounts of activity in the Organic farming sector. At work some of the biggest customers we have are retailers and brands using Organic Cotton so its in my life each and every day. Today was no exception.



At work we have an intern with us at the moment from Colorado who has been heavily involved in organics for some time. Helen Browning held one of her farm open days today and it seemed like a good plan to ask Ashley to come along for the day and look round. Also on today is the annual village Flower Show which I normally submit some of my fruit and veg to. However my garden didn't deliver anything worthy.

Elsewhere nearby was the Coleshill Organic Food Festival; another must visit event. So the day ahead was packed with plans.

We kicked off with some of my home made organic vegetable soup, headed for the Royal Oak pub and farm shop where we picked up some free organic sausages and then to the Cues Farm Stables where we jumped on the hay bales in the back of a livestock trailer to head for the fields and a close encounter with organic pigs. We squelched through the mud in glorious autumn sunshine and watched piglets chasing each other through grass and huge muddy puddles.




We took the first tractor back and whizzed off by car to Coleshil for the superb food festival.



The food festival is set in the beautiful grounds of an old house with stables and barns and dovecotes.









I bumped in to some friends, and someone who learned cheese making from Liz a long time ago. Sampled beers, ciders, perrys, cheeses, honeys, chutneys and ice cream! I purchased some local perry, and a fine presentation set of local real ale. I also managed to get Liz some vintage balsamic vinegar (not a cheap purchase!).



Ashley met someone who lives in a sort of tee pee on site and we saw an old romany gypsy wagon with a solar panel and wood burning stove.





It looked lived in, and I realised I'd actually quite fancy living like that too. It would be nice to have so little that you could live in such a simple manner.

I had a good chat with the people that run Coleshill Organics about organic cotton and told them a little about what I do. Must follow that up... as I am sure there are interesting stories to tell there.

Lovely day out.